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May 2008
In the space of one week, I had occasion to talk with several different audiences about Venture Philanthropy Partners, our work and the challenges of high engagement philanthropy, and the issues confronting the National Capital Region. What these conversations pointed out to me was how big the challenges are that face us but also how committed people are to trying to solve them. It also reminded me that there isn’t a single approach—rather we have to find ways to encourage collaboration within the philanthropic community, with government and business leaders and the nonprofit sector.
My week began with a panel during the Council on Foundations 2008 Philanthropy Summit. The topic was Charity vs. Change: What are the best approaches to helping marginalized communities? As I prepared my remarks, I found myself struggling with the framework because it pitted meeting urgent needs of individuals in poverty against longer-term systems change. In my view, it isn’t one or the other—we need to do both.
We all know the Chinese proverb: Give me a fish and I eat for a day; teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime. In the past, philanthropy has been most successful at the former—addressing urgent and critical needs in communities, one family at a time. There are thousands of wonderful organizations that feed the hungry, house the homeless, and help people get the education they need to reach for a better life. Despite all of these wonderful programs and the millions of public and private dollars supporting them, the fact is that 40 years after declaring a war on poverty, we are still very far from declaring victory. We have treated the symptoms but haven’t done enough to change the systemic issues the keep people in poverty—lack of education and lack of economic opportunity. We must work for systems change but in the meantime, we can’t let people starve or freeze on the streets. Both approaches to philanthropy are critical.
At VPP, we are focused on long-term change, supporting nonprofit leaders who are making profound gains in their communities to sustain and grow their organizations and programs so that they can increase their impact and reach. As VPP co-founder, Mario Morino once noted, “We ask nonprofits to do the impossible and then we don’t give them the negligible to achieve it.” We are trying to strengthen the ecosystem in which these and other nonprofit organizations operate so that change can happen for the long term. Through our work with the leaders of our portfolio organizations, we help them navigate through great change to achieve THEIR vision to do even more for their communities and influence others. In the process, we learn, they learn, and we share our knowledge with the field.
In today’s global knowledge economy, those living in low-income communities face an even greater risk of being left behind than ever before in our history. In the past, a high school dropout could get a job in a factory. Today, that factory and its economic opportunities are no longer there, most likely moved to a country where labor is cheaper. Poverty is not going away and may worsen before it gets better. In our region, nonprofits serving youth and families are seeing more and more demand for their services, especially now as our economy has slowed. What we are also seeing is that the location of poverty in our region is changing. The inner-city neighborhoods of the District are no longer the epicenter—some of the highest concentrations of people living in low-income communities are in Montgomery, Prince George’s, Prince William and Loudoun counties.
Nearly half of VPP’s investment partners have opened offices or facilities in suburban Maryland in the last few years. All of these organizations began their work in the District because that is where the need was greatest. But in the last five to 10 years, these organizations have seen large numbers of their clients move out of the City in search of more affordable housing, better educational opportunities for their children, and employment.
On May 8, I had the great privilege of attending the opening of Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care’s new facility in Long Branch (East Silver Spring), MD (see story below). Partnering with Washington Adventist Hospital, the new center will offer a full range of health and social services to multicultural families in Montgomery County. Four years in the making, this center is the first Federally Qualified Health Center in the county. What was particularly compelling was the strong showing of local, state, and federal government officials at the ceremony. They all spoke about how challenging it was to bring Mary’s Center to the county, how difficult it was for what is perceived to be a wealthy county like Montgomery to get a Federally Qualified Health Center, and how important this center is for the county and its residents. The sense of hope and optimism about what this center will do and the change it signals was palpable.
For me personally, it was a proud moment because VPP worked side by side with Maria Gomez, her senior management team, and her Board to help them achieve this significant milestone. This demonstrated the value that VPP and its team can bring to organizations in terms of leveraging resources and partnerships to help nonprofits negotiate the path of growth and expansion.
In the 20 years of its existence, Mary’s Center has evolved from addressing the demand for bilingual services to pregnant women and their infants in predominantly Latino areas of Ward One in the District to serving entire families from multicultural populations throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area. It has evolved from providing access to primary health care services to offering educational opportunities and job training to help people improve their opportunities in life. It provides the fish while teaching people to fish. The philanthropic community has been there both to support specific program needs as well as the organization in its journey to change and grow.
Later that evening, VPP Founding Investor Katherine Bradley graciously hosted about 40 VPP investors and friends at her home for a private dialogue with Chancellor Michelle Rhee. This gathering was a follow-up to an earlier Speaker Series event we hosted with Chancellor Rhee last September. It was a terrific opportunity to hear the Chancellor's reflections on her first year at the helm of DC Public Schools.
So many of VPP’s investors are vested in some way in the success of public education in the District—for example, through Katherine Bradley’s leadership, the CityBridge Foundation is working to expand educational capacity and improve quality for lower-income children in the District. Another example is Joe Robert, who founded and chairs Fight for Children, which has raised more than $80 million and leveraged its ties to leaders in business, philanthropy, and government to ensure that all children in the District of Columbia have the tools they need to grow, learn, and succeed. And, of course, VPP has made substantial investments in the educational ecosystem in DC with its support of See Forever Foundation/Maya Angelou Public Charter School, The Seed School, Friendship Public Charter School, and College Summit.
As always, Chancellor Rhee gave an impressive presentation, sprinkled with compelling stories that highlighted her passion for the students of DCPS and her determination to ensure that each and every one of the nearly 50,000 students in the system has access to the best education possible. I think everyone there was energized by her reform plans, and it's clear to see how she has won the confidence and support of such a wide range of stakeholders in the District.
VPP investor Jack Davies captured the feeling in the room best: "We are all impressed by Chancellor's Rhee's bold plans to turn around DC Public Schools. Like VPP, she recognizes that the way to achieve her vision is to recruit and reward talent, to have the best people on board. She has already assembled a strong leadership team and her plans to bring dynamic principals and teachers in to the system will provide what it takes to ensure that DC students get the quality education they deserve."
At the end of the week, I had the opportunity to speak about VPP and our work to the American Bar Association’s Section on Taxation annual meeting that includes attorneys from around the country. The invitation came from attorney Suzy McDowell who serves as pro bono counsel to VPP investment partner Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and knows our work first hand. While these attorneys had heard about venture philanthropy, McDowell told me that they were curious to know and understand more about how it works. Many thought it was only a phenomenon of the West Coast. I shared with this group the basics of our approach and showed them how it worked through the story of See Forever—two attorneys who started out in their quest to help youth by running a pizza delivery/afterschool tutoring program that later became a school serving 85 children. When VPP met them, they were trying to open another school and grow.
The response was enthusiastic and the questions they asked were interesting. Not surprisingly, the first question from the audience was whether VPP is a nonprofit and what kind of return we seek. That’s a question we often get and speaks to the lack of understanding among many about what venture philanthropy is. But the next few questions had to do with how VPP plans for its own growth, especially as we raise the next fund. Our own future is something I think about constantly. We strive to make sure that we are talking the talk, walking the walk, and strategically planning our future. It is a process that doesn’t stop because the environment in which we operate is constantly changing. We, as an organization, face the same struggles as the nonprofits in which we invest. And, as I told the attorneys, the lessons we have learned from our work with our investment partners apply to us as an organization. This work is hard and it takes a long time to see results.
Reflecting on each of these events, it is clear to me that the work of VPP is taking hold in the region, and our results are real. Mary’s Center’s Maryland clinic is a reality. As I told the ABA lawyers, the See Forever Foundation has evolved from a pizza delivery/afterschool program serving a few dozen youth to a thriving network of three campuses serving several hundred children. In each of these cases and with other organizations, VPP has played a critical role in helping these leaders achieve their vision, realize their dreams, and increase their impact.
At VPP, our work is about change across a wide spectrum—from expanding a nonprofit leader’s view of what is possible to putting in place new strategies to engaging new people in philanthropy to letting go of familiar and comfortable ways of doing things to thinking about different ways of measuring success and impact. By working so closely with the nonprofits in which we invest, cultivating an engaged investor community, and sharing our knowledge with the field, we hope to spur the kind of change that allows people to move out of poverty and to attain their personal and family aspirations.
- Carol Thompson Cole
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